Oh No

Went to my Primary Dr. with the complaint of "sand" or dried blood in my urine. He said don't waste your time with me.. go straight to the urologist down the street. I did.. and within twenty minutes... My Life changed during my DRE... I heard the Dr. say... Uhoh... I said that doesn't sound good... He said I feel a nodule on your prostate. We'll have to do further testing... PSA, 1.6, Cystoscopy, Negative, CT and Bone scans, Negative... Biopsy "Bingo"... He almost could not tell me the news since my PSA was so low... since most of my prostate was involved... I opted to have a robotic prostetectomy.. rather than start with radiation.. so I could use radiation as a second defense...

Procedure or Surgery

Dr. V.Patel at Celebration Health, preformed the surgery...May17th 2011. It took him less that two hours... I was up and walking that day.. but developed vertigo.. and had to stay in the hospital a few days... went home on Friday afternoon... and came back the following Monday. to have my cathoder removed...That all went fairly well.. except that his team left a little piece (Teflon) of the IV line in my hand.. (it's still there)..I regained complete bladder control in appox. two to three months...My PSA levels remained less than <0.1 for almost Twelve weeks... then started to rise... 0.1,0.2, last PSA 0.25 So now I am going to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa... and it seems that Radiation of my Prostate Bed is going to start.. middle of Jan. 2012... My sexual function was better one to two months after surgery...since then it has declined... I'm hoping that after radiation I can start working on that again.

Side Effects

As I stated before... My Sexual function was fairly good one to two months after surgery... considering what I just went through.. sadly it has deteriorated since that time... Hoping it will be reversible as I continue to heal and my "sleeping" and in shock nerves that were spared... come back to life...

Radiation

Did not start yet.. to be updated after I start.. on or around Jan.16th,2012
Update: Completed Forty treatments at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa..Finished on March 14th... Met quite a few nice guys who are traveling on the same journey... Hope that they all do well...

Celebration

G-d is Good .... Got the Results back ..and it seems that my Moffit team hit the nail on the head ...My PSA has started to reverse it is going down ...
Was 0.38 at the end of radiation ...five weeks later its at 0.26 hoping that it will continue to travel the same path ... But for now I feel like a veteran in the War against Prostate Cancer ...not a casualty..

Celebration

Well Brothers and Sisters....... Here are my "Numbers" over the last year.... I was hoping to fail this last test miserably... with 0.01< but... at least I'm heading in the right direction.... It's been 5 months since finishing the salvage radiation treatments.. not sure how long it really takes to achieve a perfect score.... but I'm still happy that it did not go up.... There's still hope.... :-)
PSA, Ultrasensitive 09/10/2012 0.14 ng/mL Five months out...
04/23/2012 0.26 ng/mL one week after treatment
03/14/2012 0.38 ng/mL Middle of Treatment
02/14/2012 0.62 ng/mL Started Treatment
Anyone have any experience they want to share... ???
Good, Bad or Otherwise....?

Oh No

Well It's been a while since I have posted on here... I was hoping that my journey had ended, but sadly it has not.. over the last year my PSA has started to rise... and in the last three months it went from 1.4 to 3.28 so it seems that my doubling factor is less than six weeks... according to my Dr at Moffitt. He ordered bone and body scans.. and as in the past nothing shows... I seemed to be blessed with a very elusive strain of PCa. Since my radiation treatments my T levels have returned to where they were prior 670 .. but in the last three months.. they have been falling and my PSA has been rising... not what's supposed to happen.. :( At my Dr's suggestion I was put on Lupron this past Tuesday .. one shot every four months... the side effects have not quite started yet.. But I am feeling some night sweats and some fatigue in general. I'm gearing up for the "Stuff" to hit the fan over the next few weeks as I have been informed by my Brothers in blue.. (A Reluctant Brotherhood) a secret group on FB for men only that have PCa so we can openly share our journey with each other.. There is no good Cancer... Wishing you all Peace and Calm in your journey. The Wizard...

Drug or Chemo Therapy

Well , here I am again... three months into my Lupron hormonal therapy. What can I say.. I have a new respect for women going through menopause .. These hot flashes are killer. ,,,but on the flip side my PSA has gone from 3.28 down to 0.30 and hopefully with my next shot.. it will go down even further.. My new Dr at Moffitt wants me to follow the holiday protocol. ie: after being on lupron for eight months... they will monitor my PSA and as long as it does not go above a predetermined number,,, I don't have to continue with the shots... That's it for now.. Wishing everyone the best outcome...
~ Larry, The Wizard of Wesley ;)